Hummingbirds Are Almost Here!

With the early spring we have had here in northern Minnesota I was thinking that the hummingbird migration would be early this year, but according to the migration map they are only slightly earlier than average in some locations.

I put out my feeder this morning in anticipation of their imminent arrival, after cleaning it thoroughly with hot water and rinsing with a very light bleach solution and another hot rinse. For nectar I mix 1/4 cup sugar to 1 cup water - no need to boil. Keep the feeder clean and you can enjoy watching their amazing aerial antics all summer.

The photo is of a male Magnificent Hummingbird I photographed near the Monteverde Cloud Forest Reserve in Costa Rica, so don't look for him at your feeder unless you live in southern Arizona.

Happy Earth Day!

Happy Earth Day everyone! I have always liked this NASA photo of Earth rising over the moon because it gives some perspective on how truly tiny our oasis of blue is compared to the infinite desert of space.

The fight to preserve our biosphere will be front and center this coming year as Congress considers comprehensive legislation to control greenhouse gasses and promote the transition to clean and sustainable sources of energy. Many on the right will claim that the price for a clean energy economy is too great, but I say look at the cost of doing nothing. If we continue on the course of business-as-usual then the livable climate our civilization has thrived in for the last ten thousand years will be irrevocably changed - and not for the better.

Mark Lynas has a good overview of what is in store for us with each degree of temperature rise, all the way to the unmitigated disaster if we let it get to six degrees Celsius. If we don't work to control greenhouse gasses now then we are in danger of a positive feedback loop as stored carbon in the arctic is released to compound the warming that has already occurred. We all need to treat every day as Earth Day, and to remember all the services humans get from our biosphere. We are all a part of that biosphere whether we like it or not, and we are tied to the same fate.

Isle Royale Study Finds Wolf-Killed Moose Increase Biodiversity

The relationship between wolves and moose on Isle Royale has been studied for over fifty years, but mostly from a perspective of how predators and prey interact in an isolated environment. A new study that looked at overall biodiversity near sites of wolf kills found an increase in soil microbes and fungus as well as increased plant growth, showing that there are biological advantages to having a top predator in a forest ecosystem.

From Science Daily

wildlife biologists from Michigan Technological University. Joseph Bump, Rolf Peterson and John Vucetich report in the November 2009 issue of the journal Ecology that the carcasses of moose killed by wolves at Isle Royale National Park enrich the soil in "hot spots" of forest fertility around the kills, causing rapid microbial and fungal growth that provide increased nutrients for plants in the area.

"This study demonstrates an unforeseen link between the hunting behavior of a top predator -- the wolf -- and biochemical hot spots on the landscape," said Bump, an assistant professor in Michigan Tech's School of Forest Resources and Environmental Science and first author of the research paper. "It's important because it illuminates another contribution large predators make to the ecosystem they live in and illustrates what can be protected or lost when predators are preserved or exterminated."

Orchids Are Blooming!

The weather in Grand Portage has suddenly switched to summer, and the spring flowers are giving way to the summer flowers. One sign of this that I watch for is a patch of yellow lady's slippers (Cypripedium calceolus) on the old highway. This is one of the forty two species of orchid that are found in Minnesota, and one of the most beautiful.

The majority of Minnesota orchids are small and inconspicuous, and most of us pass them by without notice. I recently found a tiny patch of early coral root (Corallorhiza trifida) on the edge of my lawn that I must have passed dozens of times without seeing. I would provide a picture of them, but they had already finished blooming - maybe next spring now that I know where to look.

Peregrine Falcons Fledging In Duluth

I happened to catch this post at Sam Cook's blog about the four peregrine falcon chicks that have hatched atop the Graysolon Plaza in Duluth. They are expected to fly around July first, and naturalists from Hawk Ridge will be stationed along the Lakewalk at Lake Place Park Tuesday through Saturday to show them to the public. Peregrines have adapted well to our urban landscapes in the decades following their near extinction due to DDT in the environment. The recovery of raptors since the U.S. ban on DDT has been remarkable, and seeing a perigrine in flight (or better yet a full 200+mph dive!) is something not to be missed.

I have had Merlins (another falcon - small, fast and fierce) nest in my yard and was lucky to be able to watch as they grew from awkward noisy fuzzballs to swift noisy juveniles. If you are in Duluth take the time to see the peregrines as they prepare for their first flight.

Happy Earth Day!

Although I think we should try to make every day Earth Day!

I believe that if more people realize how fragile some of the threads that hold so many ecosystems in balance are they would be a little slower in causally disregarding our environment.

So today try to get outside for a while. Listen to the birds sing and the waters lap on the shore. Find a quiet spot to reflect on the beauty that we are so fortunate to have surrounding us here on the North Shore.

If everyone can carry a little of that awareness into their everyday lives then maybe we humans still have a chance to preserve a livable biosphere for our children and grandchildren.

The Effect Of Excess Carbon Dioxide That No One Wants to Talk About

The climate chaos caused by the rapid rise in CO2 levels in the atmosphere is only one reason that we need to reduce carbon emissions, the other is that it is making the oceans more acidic.

The oceans naturally absorb around one third of our CO2 emissions every year, but while removing it from the atmosphere is a good thing from a climate standpoint, the effect on ocean chemistry could be just as catastrophic. CO2 dissolves in seawater and forms carbonic acid which lowers the PH. This reduced PH is already being seen by scientists. Many life forms at the base of the oceanic food web depend on carbonate shells or exoskeletons, and if the sea becomes too acidic they will no longer be able to make them. Studies of corals on the Great Barrier Reef have shown that growth rates are slower now than they have been in 400 years.

Over 150 marine scientists have signed the Monaco Declaration (pdf) expressing their alarm over findings of increased ocean acidification worldwide. Although CO2 levels have been higher in the past, the extreme rapidity of the current changes will leave no time for ecosystems to adapt. I recently read a study on the correlation between lack of coral reefs and mass extinctions, so even if you don't think our excess CO2 emissions are warming the earth there are other important reasons we need to reduce them.

The Climes They Are A-Changin'...

How will our changing global climate affect Grand Portage?

This is a question that we in the Environmental and Natural Resources departments are trying to answer. Notice that it is no longer a question of if the climate is changing but how much and how fast. The people that know are the ones that are out in the woods and on the waters every day; hunters, fishermen, foresters, gatherers, resource professionals, and anyone else that enjoys being outside and can observe nature. Elders are a particularly good source of information on how plant and animal communities are changing.

I am only in my forties and I have seen major changes in the local climate and ecology. One example is the ice cover on Grand Portage Bay. Back in the 1970's I would watch as great blocks of ice were sawed from the bay, loaded onto trucks parked on the ice, and put up in sawdust to last the summer. The bay would freeze early in winter and stay frozen for weeks. Now the bay hardly freezes long enough to create ice safe enough to skate or snowmobile on, much less park a truck. Recent research at UMD has shown that Lake Superior is warming very rapidly and ice cover is decreasing. Another example is how more southern animals that were unheard of or uncommon here in previous decades are becoming regular sightings. Now we are seeing cardinals, raccoons, wood ticks, and more. I have even heard about opossums being found up near Bemidji and armadillos in Illinois. It is not so much higher daytime high temperatures that are allowing this northward migration as lack of cold enough low temperatures for long enough periods.

More worrying is the plight of our local moose population. Grand Portage is on the southern edge of moose range, and we are already seeing increases in moose mortality. Moose become stressed if summer temperatures get too high, which leaves them less time to forage and build up strength for winter, which leads to them being more vulnerable to winter ticks and predation by wolves. We are monitoring the health and numbers of our moose closely.

Climate change will be a recurring theme on this blog, since it is one of the biggest challenges we and our fellow species face right now. If you know of anyone, particularly elders, who have stories about how the climate is changing and how it used to be please send me an e-mail at soberg@boreal.org or call me at the Trust Lands office - 218-475-2415 ex 35.